Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.17 “Interior Loft Later”

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!

This week, a loft sees a lot of action!

Episode 2.17 “Interior Loft Later”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on February 4th, 1990)

The loft from last week’s episode returns!

The loft is now home to sculptor Alex McFain (Robert F. Lyons). Alex spends most of his time sitting and sleeping in a bath tub and complaining about the fact that his work doesn’t make him much money. When his wife, Fabina (Fabiana Udenio) accidentally kills one of Alex’s models, Alex comes up with a brilliant plan. He’ll fake his own death so his work will become valuable!

At first, the plan works. The only problem is that Alex can no longer leave the loft. With Fabina constantly going outside to sell his work, Alex starts to worry that she’s having an affair with another man. It tuns out that he’s half-right. Fabina is having an affair but it’s with another woman. Alex is shocked but he’s then killed by decorative sword that falls off of the ceiling. Now, his work will be really valuable!

Months later, Fabina’s former boy toy, Art (Dean Fortunato), shows up at the apartment and discovers that it is now occupied by Stacy (Leslie Bega) and Gina (Tory Polone). Art moves in with them and proceeds to seduce both of them. He tells one that he’s an environmental activist being pursued by a cartel of fishermen. He tells the other that he’s being chased by the mob. When Stacy and Gina compare notes, it’s bad news for both Art.

Freddy doesn’t do anything in either one of these stories, other than introduce them. Both stories follow the familiar pattern where anything overly dramatic that happens is ultimately revealed to be a dream. Neither story is all that interesting but Robert F. Lyons does his best to bring some life to his role of the sculptor pretending to be dead. As has so often been the case with the second season, this episode isn’t great or even memorable but it’s still a hundred times better than the majority of the first season.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.16 “Interior Loft”

Posted on June 12, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a husband and a wife live in a loft and obsess on sex and death.

Episode 2.16 “Interior Loft”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on January 28th, 1990)

Kim Lewis (Elizabeth Keifer) has quit her job so that she can work on her novel. Her husband, David (Kip Gilman), is a lazy grad student who doesn’t bring in much money to the household. David suggests that Kim could record a message for a sex line. Kim agrees but, when a serial killer becomes obsessed with the message, she finds herself being stalked. Fortunately, the killer dies before he can harm Kim. But Kim is so traumatized and mentally shaken by her stalker’s bloody death that David comes to worry that she might be plotting to become a killer herself. And, of course, she is.

There was nothing supernatural about this episode, other than Freddy popping up for the host segments. Apparently, even in his Hellish afterlife, Freddy tries to keep up with all the latest novels. This episode was instead an attempt at neo-noir and director Ken Weiderhorn manages to create an appropriately ominous atmosphere. Elizabeth Keifer gives a strong performance as Kim so it’s unfortunate that the rest of the cast isn’t as memorable. This was not a bad episode but it was hard not to feel that it could have been even better.

In the end, I appreciated the fact that this episode actually did have something on its mind. David fears that Kim is a potential killer because of the book that she writes. That’s something to which any creative person in the horror field can relate. Audiences often seem to assume that a morbid imagination is linked to a morbid personality whereas the opposite is often the case. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few horror people. They’re nice!

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.13 “What You Don’t Know Can Kill You”

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Freddy is just as confused as the rest of us.

Episode 2.13 “What You Don’t Know Can Kill You”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on January 7th, 1990)

Psychiatrist Dr. Rothman (David Hern) has been hypnotizing his female patients and then molesting them. (This was something that apparently used to happen quite often with Victorian-era hypnotists.) When a colleague (Phil Proctor) discovers what Rothman is doing, Rothman hypnotizes and programs one of his patients, Derby Brown (Fran Montano), to become an assassin. However, Rothman screws up the programming and ends up getting shot by a hypnotized Derby. Derby’s girlfriend suggests that Derby should have plastic surgery to disguise his appearance. They see a handsome man’s photograph in a newspaper and they decide that’s the face they want. As a result of the surgery, Derby now looks exactly like Vinnie (Paul Regina, playing both roles). Unfortunately, Vinnie is a mob informant and there’s a hitman after him.

Got all that?

This episode was pretty dumb. Paul Regina did a good job as Vinnie and his new doppelganger but, for the most part, I’m not really sure why this was even an episode of Freddy’s Nightmares. There was nothing supernatural about either story and neither story was particularly scary. Freddy only appeared in his host segments and he seemed to be fairly bored with the whole thing.

Usually, I love it when a show embraces the melodrama but this episode wasn’t subversive enough to work as a satire. Despite the over the top plot, it still felt oddly generic.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.3 “Welcome to Springwood”

Posted on February 20, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, more and more people are coming to Springwood.

Episode 2.3 “Welcome to Springwood”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on October 22nd, 1989)

Roxanne (Leah Ayres) and her husband, Doug (Michael Horton). have just moved to a new house in Springwood, Ohio. Doug, a lawyer, has to go to his office and he leaves Roxanne, who is recovering from a mental breakdown, alone with the boxes that the moves have already brought into the house. He tells her not to worry about opening them and promises her that they’ll unpack when he gets home.

Roxanne, however, opens the boxes. And she finds things that clearly don’t belong to her. She calls Doug at work. Doug says that there must have been a mix-up with the moving company and that he’ll call and make sure that their stuff gets delivered as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, at the house, Roxanne starts to see people who may or may not be there….

As surprised as I am to say this, the first segment of this episode of Freddy’s Nightmares was an enjoyably macabre story. Yes, the final twist is one that you’ll see coming but director Ken Wiederhorn does a great job creating and maintaining atmosphere and Ayres, Horton, and Todd Allen all give strong performances.

The second story isn’t close to be anywhere as interesting. Emily Jamison (Dey Young) has moved into a new home and she finds a hidden stack of letters that were written years before. The letters detail a doomed romance and Emily soon starts to see ghosts. The story isn’t terrible but it’s a bit bland.

Still, this was another good episode of Freddy’s Nightmares. So far, at least, the show appears to have found its footing during its second season. It’ll be interesting to see if that continues next week.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 1.18 “The Art of Death”

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week’s episode is actually decent.

Episode 1.18 “The Art of Death”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on March 12th, 1989)

Jack (Carey Scott) is a talented artist and college student who has a crush on Joan (Laura Schaefer). When Joan’s jock boyfriend humiliates Jack, Jack suddenly finds himself approached by The Phantom (Judd Omen), a masked figure who claims that he can kill Jack’s enemies if Jack draws a picture of him doing it. After the jock is killed in a treadmill accident, Joan sees the picture that Jack drew and decides she doesn’t want anything to do with Jack. The Phantom suggests drawing a picture of him surprising Joan in the shower. Jack refuses, just to discover that the picture has already been drawn and the Phantom is now holding Joan prisoner in a boiler room. Jack draws a picture of the Phantom being sucked down a hole. The Phantom vanishes but …. oh no, now Jack’s wearing the mask! Jack was the Phantom all along!

As for the second story, Joan struggles to recover from the trauma. In typical Freddy’s Nightmares fashion, she has a series of hallucinations that lead to her killing her psychiatrist.

This episode actually worked! The first story was genuinely creepy. The second story was predictable but it featured a good performance from Laura Schaefer and the action moved at a decent pace. I’m going to give the majority of the credit to director Ken Wiederhorn, who previously directed one of my favorite zombie films, 1977’s Shock Waves.

This is my final Freddy’s Nightmares review for 2025. Retro Television Review is taking a break for the holidays, so I can focus on Awards Season and Christmas movies! Freddy’s Nightmares will return on January 9th.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 1.7 “Sister’s Keeper”

Posted on September 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Freddy is out for revenge.

Episode 7.1 “Sister’s Keeper”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on November 20th, 1988)

Freddy’s Nightmares started with Freddy Krueger killing Deputy Blocker, the man who had led the vigilante mob that set him on fire. This episode finds Freddy seeking revenge on Blocker’s twin teenager daughters, neurotic Merit (Hili Park) and the supercool, super awesome Lisa (Gry Park). Merit is convinced hat Freddy is haunting her nightmares and, as a result, she’s a bit of an outcast at school. Lisa, on the other hand, believes that Freddy is dead and buried. Lisa is stable and popular at school and even has a jock boyfriend.

Needless to say, Merit is a bit jealous of Lisa. For me, this was the most realistic part of this episode. People are always jealous of girls named Lisa, especially when they’ve got it all together as this Lisa does. (Trust me, I know!) It’s a heavy burden to bear but it happens. Lisa, being a saint, tries to help Merit out but Merit is pretty unappreciative.

Lisa even dresses up like Merit and pretends to be Merit so that she can experience what it’s like to be her sister. Lisa discovers that her boyfriend is just as interesting in sleeping with Merit as in sleeping with her. Booo! What a creep! Even worse, Lisa discovers that Freddy is real and that he’s after both her and Merit.

Like the pilot, this episode tells one story and most of the action centers around Freddy. Freddy actually takes part in this week’s story and, even by his standards, he’s cruel. “I’ll make it gentle,” he tells the terrified Merit, a reminder that Freddy was always a far more perverse killer than the seemingly asexual Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. This episode was a reminder of just how scary Freddy could be. Robert Englund didn’t hold up.

Merit and Lisa learn how to dream “in sync” so that they can both face Freddy at the same time. It’s a cool idea that does absolutely no good. As Lisa puts it, “It doesn’t work, you can’t make him go away!” Lisa ends up dead (boo!) while Merit is blamed for her murder. And so the episode ends.

Wow, that’s not a happy ending. Not only did Freddy triumph but supercool Lisa was killed, largely due to her sister’s incompetence. Then again, there really aren’t that many happy endings to be found when it comes to Freddy Krueger. The ending was depressing but effective and, even more importantly, it was really the only way the story could have ended.

This episode was pretty good. It’s certainly the best that I’ve seen so far. Merit and Lisa were real-played by the Park sisters and Robert Englund once again showed just how frightening he could be as Freddy Krueger. Within the confines imposed by television syndication, this was a genuinely frightening episode.

10 Shots From 10 Horror Films: 1975 — 1977

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

This October, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.

Today, we take a look at three very important years: 1975, 1976, and 1977!

10 Shots From 10 Films: 1975 — 1977

Deep Red (1975, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Luigi Kuveiller)

Trilogy of Terror (1975, dir by Dan Curtis. DP: Paul Lohmann)

Eaten Alive (1976, dir by Tobe Hooper. DP: Robert Caramico)

The Omen (1976, dir by Richard Donner, DP: Gilbert Taylor)

Carrie (1976, dir by Brian De Palma, DP: Mario Tosi)

Shock (1977, dir by Mario Bava, DP: Alberto Spagnoli)

The Hills Have Eyes (1977, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Eric Saarinen)

Suspiria (1977, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Luciano Tuvalia)

Eraserhead (1977, directed by David Lynch, DP: Frederick Elmes and Herbert Cardwell)

Shock Waves (1977, dir by Ken Wiederhorn, DP: Reuben Trane)

4 Shots From 4 Peter Cushing Films: Corruption, Scream and Scream Again, Asylum, Shock Waves

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today, we pay tribute to one of the greatest British film stars with….

4 Shots From 4 Peter Cushing Films

Corruption (1968, dir by Robert Hartford-Davis)

Scream and Scream Again (1970, dir by Gordon Hessler)

Asylum (1972, dir by Roy Ward Baker)

Shock Waves (1977, dir by Ken Wiederhorn)

4 Shots From 4 James Karen Horror Films: Frankenstein Meets The Space Monster, Poltergeist, Return of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead Part II

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, we lost one of the great character actors, James Karen. Over the course of his long career, Karen appeared work in almost genre imaginable, including horror. Today, we pay tribute to him with….

4 Shots From 4 James Karen Horror Films

Frankenstein Meets The Space Monster (1965, dir by Robert Gaffney)

Poltergeist (1982, dir by Tobe Hooper)

Return of the Living Dead (1985, dir by Dan O’Bannon)

Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988, dir by Ken Wiederhorn)

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Eyes of a Stranger (dir by Ken Wiederhorn)

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this 1981 slasher film, bad things are happening in the city of Miami.

There’s a serial killer on the loose. He’s chopping off heads and leaving bodies on the beach and basically just making a huge mess of things. Local new anchorwoman Jane (Lauren Tewes) is upset that there’s a killer roaming the streets of her hometown. She even talks about how upset she is during a local newscast, which takes everyone at the station by surprise. I don’t know why they’re so shocked. Don’t they know that Jane has a younger sister named Tracy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and that Tracy’s been blind, deaf, and mute ever since she was attacked by a maniac?

One day, Jane is returning to the apartment that she shares with her sister. As she’s parking her car, she sees her neighbor, Stanley (John DiSanti), stuffing what appears to be a bloody shirt in a trash can. Oh my God, could he be the murderer!?

Well, yes, he is. The film actually makes no attempt to hide the fact that Stanley is the murderer. Stanley is one of those movie murderers who is either hyper competent or totally oblivious, depending on what the scene demands. For instance, despite being a rather heavyset, middle-aged man, he can still sneak up behind people without them ever hearing and chop off their head with one wave of a meat cleaver. On the other hand, when he kills a couple on the beach, his car ends up getting stuck in the sand.

Anyway, Jane is pretty much instantly convinced that Stanley is the killer and she immediately starts doing stuff like taunting him over the telephone. (Despite the fact that she’s on TV every night and her voice is apparently heard by everyone in Miami, she makes no effort to disguise her voice whenever she calls Stanley.) She also breaks into his apartment to look for clues.

As I watched this film, I found myself thinking about how much more interesting it would have been if Stanley hadn’t been the killer and if Jane felt so guilty about what happened to her sister that she ended up harassing a totally innocent bystander. But no, Stanley is the murderer so naturally all of this leads to an extended sequence where Stanley breaks into and then follows Tracy around Jane’s apartment.

So, Eyes of a Stranger is a fairly mediocre film, one that would probably be totally forgotten if not for the fact that it’s also the debut film of Jennifer Jason Leigh. While the film is obviously meant to showcase Lauren Tewes (a TV actress who gives a rather wooden performance), Jennifer Jason Leigh steals every scene in which she appears. Her total commitment to her character shines through and she even manages to sell a rather implausible plot twist that occurs towards the end of the film. John DiSanti also deserves some credit for his performance as Stanley. Again, it’s hard not to feel that the film would have worked better if it had tried to keep us guessing as to the question of Stanley’s guilt.

Eyes of a Stranger was directed by Ken Wiederhorn, who also did the far superior zombie movie, Shock Waves. It’s interesting to note that both Lauren Tewes and Jennifer Jason Leigh would subsequently appear in Twin Peaks: The Return, though Leigh’s role was significantly larger.